Madara's body gradually rose into the air beneath the torrent of golden light, mysterious black Magatama patterns emerging across his skin.
Those patterns moved like living creatures, eventually converging on his back to form nine pitch-black Magatama markings.
The space around him began to distort, the air compressed into visible ripples.
"Yin and Yang restrain and generate each other..."
Hashirama's voice had grown hoarse, a trace of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.
His hands trembled as he formed seals, yet the stream of Yang Release he supplied only grew more blazing. "Now—combine!"
Boom!
The nine Magatama on Madara's back suddenly lit up with blinding purple radiance, like nine miniature suns.
They spun free of his skin and condensed into a chaotic black sphere three feet behind him.
The sphere's surface constantly collapsed and expanded, each pulse causing the surrounding light to bend in bizarre ways.
Neji's Byakugan suddenly throbbed with pain—the space around that black sphere was collapsing!
All chakra that approached it was torn apart into its most primitive form of energy.
Even more terrifying, he vaguely saw illusions of stars being born and dying within the black sphere, as if it contained a miniature universe.
"Truth-Seeking Orb... Prototype!"
Tobirama's voice cracked with shock. Blood burst from the tips of the fingers maintaining his hand seals, while the sealing barrier gave a cracking sound under the crushing pressure of the Truth-Seeking Orb.
Two trails of bloody tears suddenly ran from Madara's Rinnegan.
He spread his arms, and the newly formed Truth-Seeking Orb Prototype slowly sank into his back, forming a pitch-black vortex mark along his spine.
At the center of the vortex, six phantom Magatama could vaguely be seen, like some unfinished formation.
"Still lacking... the final step..."
Hashirama's face had turned white as paper. The